AGENTS EARN THEIR MONEY

WHILE Manchester City are trying to land Kaka for £100million the big news in Blackpool is that joint owner Valery Belekon wants to get us into the Premier League.

He's been quoted in the local press as saying he also wants us to have an all-seater stadium, which would be fantastic. Mind you, we'd settle for a ground with just three sides to protect us from the elements!

The transfer window is a great time for agents and they've certainly been busy up here. We've now signed an incredible 20 players this season, with Graeme Owens, Roy O'Donavon and DJ Campbell coming in this week.

I know a lot of fans don't like agents but most of the players reckon they earn their money. Most of my experiences with them have been good, although my first agent would go months without speaking to me.

He had a few players in the Blackburn youth team back then and we used to joke that he didn't even know all our names. That was proved right when he called his client, Stuart Howson, Steve!

I chose another agent because I was impressed with the fact he used to appear on the Men and Motors channel with Jo Guest.

Unhappy

A good agent can guide young, and often naive, players through the negotiations and stop them being exploited by people inside and outside the game.

When you move clubs or are being offered a new contract the club will usually go straight to your agent, who will then negotiate on your behalf.

I think it's best this way because then players can just play football without worrying about haggling and upsetting people, while the agents earn their money by making sure you're not getting taken advantage of.

Just imagine an 18-year-old kid in talks with Alex Ferguson and demanding more money!

It's not all multi-million pound deals for agents though. They have to spend countless hours listening to their players moan. When you consider that there are at least 25 players in a squad and only eleven can play, that means a lot of unhappy players every Saturday.

We also like to get free boots, so we can have a little moan if they don't turn up in time for a game. Then you get the more serious problems like lower league players who can't get a club and are struggling to pay their mortgage.

A former team-mate of mine, Lee Philpott, has recently become an agent. I was speaking to him after a game a couple of weeks ago. He must have had five phone calls in the space of ten minutes from his clients who had been dropped that day and were unhappy.

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